SAMANTHA CRAIN

Under Branch & Thorn & Tree

(Full Time Hobby)

SELECTIONS from this, her fourth album, will assuredly feature in Oklahoma-born Crain’s appearance at Perth Concert Hall’s Southern Fried weekend at the end of next month and, as those who saw her in support to Suzanne Vega at Celtic Connections in 2014 will attest, that will be yet another fine reason for making the trip to that event.

Some of the songs here, particularly the closing Moving Day and When You Come Back (a track that shares much of its chord sequence – surely unintentionally – with Amy Rigby’s wry Are We Ever Gonna Have Sex Again?), suggest interpreting the set as a “break-up” album, but Crain’s involving tales could be as much observed short stories as personal narratives. That is particularly true of the excellent You or Mystery, a meditation on the more casual relationships of modern society.

Crain’s voice is a hugely versatile instrument capable of sounding vulnerable one minute and then defiant and strong the next, and it is here accompanied by arrangements of analogue warmth that are spare but full of detail.

Instrumentally, Elk City, with its bass pulse, fiddle, harmonica and keyboards, is a real standout, but producer John Vanderslice and she have created a 10-track set that is full of fine listening.